Um Tiro no Escuro

Lionel did it again. Finally, a Portuguese director that is not afraid to actually entertain and tell a story. This is not his first movie, but it is certainly one where he proves that he can be of international quality.

There were still a few little glitches here and there, but the absolutely staggering interpretation of all the actors completely makes you forget (and forgive) it.

I rented the DVD and also checked the director's comments. And sadly I noticed that he never refers to Joaquim de Almeida's interpretation, who was at his best in his powerful and dramatic role as a cop. The director mentioned everybody and praised everybody, except the great actor. He only mentioned Joaquim's name to comment about some stuff about his availability to film. It did not feel right and I thought this to be tasteless and wanted to mention it here.

"Um tiro no escuro" (Shot in the dark) is a mix of drama and action movie. I tell you that because it has two parallel plots which mix together in the middle of the picture.

Veronica (Vanessa Mesquita) is a Brazilian woman from whom was stolen a baby, when she was in a bathroom of a Rio de Janeiro's airport, by a Portuguese air stewardess. Almost two years later we see her working in Lisbon in a strip-club. But we can see, by the plot, that she moved to Portugal in order to seek her missing child (everyday she passes to the airport and stay looking at the air-stewardess of the same company of the woman who stole her baby, seeing them arriving and departing, just to try to find again that woman!). At the same time we watch a guy leaving the jail. This guy, who was arrested by banc robbery, is a brother of the Night-Club porter, the "Engineer" (Filipe Duarte), which is friend of Vanessa and was arrested once by the same reason. When he and Vanessa were fired of the Night-club (after a fighting with the boss), the "Engineer" gave her support, leaving her to stay at his place. Here starts the "fusion" of the two "stories"…

In my point of view I think there are two different genres of cinema in this film. The first, which we can see particularly in the beginning and in the end of the movie, is related to Drama. The kind of drama that tries to make you cry, but that is, almost all the time, too lame for that! And the "drama" of this movie was no exception, because I really think it wasn't needed. Worse, I even think it spoilt a bit a good action plot (the other genre of cinema I did refer), which was, in fact, the great part (in time and quality!) of this movie! As an action movie this film was very good, one of the best I've seen in Portuguese cinema for the last few years, but the "drama story" made me low my score (I would give it a 8/10, but because of that, I will just vote 7/10). This film makes an excellent portrait of the underground world of crime and night-life in Portugal, but it really was a pity that dramatic ending! It even seems to be taken from some cheap South American Soap Opera!

The film is awful, it tries to follow the Hollywood pattern not only with its simple and plain storyline (some people call it a "twist" in the end?! Howcome?!), but also with the placing of the camera, pace and in other acting/technical aspects. But it fails. It fails because the director is not capable here of creating any kind of drama, suspense nor it shows any kind of quality in the production. It really seems to be a film made with money but directed by the most amateur possible director.

Although weak, the acting is not the worst here. Some respectable performances by the lead male characters (the same I can not tell about the lead female actress, something went really wrong here, either with her or with the directing).

So in my opinion you should not waste your time here. There are good Portuguese films and there are bad Portuguese films. And then there are these films, the ones you should avoid because there is NOTHING new here, you will find only bad imitation and the most predictable storyline ever.

Good movie with a dual story line about a gang of bank robbers and the police detectives pursuing them:

In Rio de Janeiro airport, Verônica's daughter was kidnapped by a Portuguese stewardess. Verônica moves to Portugal and spends the days in Lisbon airport trying to find the stewardess and her lost child. By night she finds illegal employment as a stripper.

Brocas just got out of jail and wastes no time in reacquainting himself with Metralha and a life of crime. They end up enlisting the help of Brocas' brother Engenheiro, and then also the love interest of Engenheiro, Verônica, and go out on a bank robbing spree.

To complete the main cast, Rafael and Filipa are the investigating officers in charge of capturing the criminals. But Rafael, the senior detective, has a dark secret...

Half of the cast is quite wooden and the other half is quite good - especially look out for more movies with Ivo Canelas, he is generally a few notches above almost all of his co-stars. The directing is nice and unobtrusive; the plot is unpretentious and entertaining, and although not mind-blowing, it has a very nice plot twist near the end. Kudos for the screenwriter for that one.

Overall, the movie has good entertaining value. I recommend this one to spend an hour and a half with Portuguese cinema.

If you like to watch (in the end) overtly sentimental dramas with average acting (pace other reviews) and with a storyline that doesn't exactly require a genius to compound, you will have a great time watching this movie. The plot is somewhat dull and way too familiar from other crime/heist flicks, except for one sole twist in it, while the music is totally conventional (by American standards), at points reminding of second-class thrillers without any real chance of creating suspense (and in fact this is more a drama-cum-crime flick than anything else). At the end sequence it really felt like watching a watered-down Brazilian soap-opera episode (i.e. it really wasn't as sentimental as it could have been). On the positive side, Um Tiro... has real smooth, Hollywood-style camera-work, but, even here, you will not find nothing out of the ordinary. And routine visuals cannot make up for what the film lacks in depth and imagination.